Long Plays

I tend to be one of those people that is considered an old heart. I like my classic rock on classic vinyls, I like sittin back relaxing with a book as opposed to goin out and clubbin it up, I prefer reading up on current events, news and so on as opposed to letting TV present it to me as the producers see fit. But at the same time, I find myself overwhelmed lately by just how many resources on various topics there are to be found on the interweb. Its the anti-TV really. Instead of producers and directors spoon feeding you, you are left to your own devices.

You've got your news sources, editorial and commentary sites, blogs, forums, and then people on your contact list (at least those who are prone to reading their own collection of said resources) sending you their own links to this that and the other thing. On some days it just becomes overwhelming.

I confess lately to just skimming headlines and filling in my own stories, although, with the main sources, you are safe in doing so and still knowing the general gist of what's goin down in the world. I've got to learn that there's just too much goin on out there to learn too much about one thing. There are some people out there that can rhyme off dates and names like nobodies business about various topics. I am not one of those people. I develop my own thoughts and fill in the details where necessary later, and so end up talking out of my ass a lot in the mean time, as is usually the case in these little nuggets.

I think this might be a function of the time and locale in which I've grown up, where the way of life is infact not to remember everything but to access whatever facts are needed as they come, and know how to deal with them. In my likely less than well informed opinion I think this is what the internet in the end has brought to us, a lessening of the burden of memorization, access the world as it comes, don't 'waste' your brain with trivial details, but understand processes, know how to get shit done with the nearly instantaneous resources available.

Perhaps it is my 'old heart' talking, or my being in the middle of reading Fahrenheit 451 (have I also mentioned that I am fairly easily influenced by my fix of the moment?), but I think, while making us efficient, it also makes us lazy. Less thinking, and more dealing with the world as it revolves into us.